Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. This is a rhythm I grew up hearing when my brother would make fun of me or someone in school would pick on me.
The director of the learning center asked us to engage in character building activities and after observing them for the day I understood why.
These students did nothing but fight, yell over one another and disrespect their teacher. These students were refuges or students that couldn’t fit in the public school system. Because of their harsh backgrounds they are not disciplined, nor given encouragement. These students would come to the learning center for the morning and go to work.
So we decided to play an fun character building activity.
Someone would stand in front of the class, and each classmate would write an encouraging word to describe that student.
A little girl went first. One classmate wrote funny, another wrote short, and then one of the older boys went up and wrote f…a…t.
And when I saw those three letters, my heart sank and tears began to well in my eyes.
He had no idea how much weight and power that three-letter word carried.
I knew it was my responsibility to teach him the power behind his words and the influence he could have amongst his classmates.
I asked about his family and his mom; and asked if he would describe his mother the way he described his classmate. As tears began to well in his eyes, I knew he understood and for the rest of his classmates he wrote something positive and his friends followed.
Words can encourage
Words can tear down.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen
Ephesians 4:29
